At first I didn't think I would like the load outs and ordanance drops, but I fell in love with the carbine, and there are still weapons laying around. Multiplayer is definitely a step up from reach, and may be better than halo 3.

I liked the campaign+spartan ops(also campaign) more than all of the other halo games, bar ODST(incredible atmosphere).

I felt the story was much more intimate than all the other games, bar ODST. The story wasnt too complex, butt it was still enjoyable. Even though there are only about 6 characters, I really liked watching them in cutscenes, espicially Del Rio.

I like this game just above Reach. It feels more balanced, even with the drops and loadouts.... I feel like skill actually matters a lot more now--not just rushing the power weapons.I like the whole "career" aspect and how there can be a fair amount of customization to your Spartan, without adding any game-breaking abilities or unlockables.I feel like the did take some notes from the success of the CoD series, but they gave those enough of a unique makeover to make it feel like I'm still playing Halo, and not "Black Ops in space".Other than the lightrifle though, I feel fairly "meh" about the Forerunner weapons.

mgb519 wrote:Nah, the boltshot is nice too. It's two guns in one, you know.

It's the Mauler from Halo 3 but worse dude

@jMatthew

Really? I always considered rushing the power weapons to be a big part of what separated skilled and unskilled halo players, it was a really fun sort of blend of map-awareness strategy and twitch shooter that I enjoyed immensely, with something like CoD you lose the need for global map awareness and it becomes more about just detecting other players and shooting them, which is less fun.

mgb519 wrote:Nah, the boltshot is nice too. It's two guns in one, you know.

It's the Mauler from Halo 3 but worse dude

@jMatthew

Really? I always considered rushing the power weapons to be a big part of what separated skilled and unskilled halo players, it was a really fun sort of blend of map-awareness strategy and twitch shooter that I enjoyed immensely, with something like CoD you lose the need for global map awareness and it becomes more about just detecting other players and shooting them, which is less fun.

Yeah, I don't care for the boltshot either.

And--don't get me wrong--I think the power weapons are still worth going after.... They're just not quite as vital as they used to be. There are numerous other viable options for killing your foes. In previous games, it felt like you couldn't do a whole lot of anything until you had one of those weapons in your hand. This feels a bit more like CE to me, where you actually COULD pwn someone with your initial weapons, but you'd be better off picking up something else as well.